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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Openings/Closings / Gossip / Chefs / Restaurants

Betel Is Back In The Kitchen!

Posted by Brian Ries on Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 8:25 PM

For about a year, Sarasota was blessed by a brief affair with Ethiopian home-cooking, thanks to Betel Tafesse's short lived Fly bar and restaurant, which she lost to a divorce last year.

Well, now she's back (at least once a week) piling killer veggies and spiced meats on tart injera bread every Thursday night at Metro in downtown SRQ. Maybe this will start a trend -- chef as DJ, with restaurants featuring a varied menu of culinary stylings every night of the week. Sweet.

Press release after the jump.

Some info for newbies . . . betel Meet Betel Tafesse. Betel used to own FLY, an Ethiopian eatery. Once you taste this food, you'll know why her friends clamored for her to cook - SOMEWHERE! - regularly. We're glad she chose METRO.Ethiopian food consists of various vegetables or meat side dishes and entrees served atop injera, a large sourdough flat bread made out of fermented teff flour. One does not eat with utensils, but instead uses injera to scoop up the entrees and side dishes. Some common spices in Ethiopian cooking include fenugreek, cumin, basil, coriander, ginger, mustard, cardamom, red pepper, chili pepper, turmeric and thyme.